After we arrived at Cairo, Dr Leicester went to his contact for the British Museum and handed over the sceptre and told them about eth camp and what happened. Wooster went to the British Embassy and handed over the three Europeans. He told them that the camp had been overrun by Arabs and that the carnage must have driven the Europeans mad. When asked if he had seen the Arabs overrun the camp he admitted he hadn’t but that there were no Arabs in the camp when we returned, only the Europeans.
We spend the night in Cairo and then fly out the next morning. We meet at the plane at 6am. Wooster turns up with hot tea and sweet rolls for four. When we arrive we see an Arab that we have never seen before with Alish and Captain Cullen. The Arab is called Alim, and is a business associate of Captain Cullen’s who has acquired items that we need and is accompanying us on our trip to Jerusalem. During introductions, Dr Leicester notes that Alish talks with superiority to Alim, who responds with respect. I note that Alim treats Alish like a Bishop would treat a Cardinal and that when they first meet there is a look of shock on Alim’s face, which he hides quickly.
Captain Cullen and Dr Leicester board the plane. On board they open the strongbox retrieved from the camp. Within the box are documents which mean nothing to us and some cash bonds totalling about £3000. Within the documents, Dr Leicester is noted as one of the authorised signatories for the bonds. There are also maps of the dig, and notes of where things were found. Some of the finds have gone to Britain, others to France. The smaller and more expensive items went to Britain, while the larger and less expensive items went to France.
We leave Cairo and after refuelling on the way we arrive safely in Jerusalem late at night. Captain Cullen goes and finds a car to transport us to the hotel. Today is the 22nd December. Alim turns out to know Jerusalem and so we hire him as a guide for a few days. Once we arrive at the hotel, Alim disappears. Wooster sorts out our finances.
Captain Cullen believes we are looking for a bridge within Jerusalem – one that matches the one in the paintings on the wall of the chamber that we saw in Hamunaptra. Dr Leicester thinks he knows somebody in the city who might be able to help us search for the bridge. I note that the local Catholic priests may be able to help us and that I will seek their aid in the morning. Both Dr Leicester and I believe that the bridge is not a physical object, and that we should be looking for the ‘Gate Keeper’ and the ‘Key’. (Shades of Ghostbusters here I think...)
During our discussions I notice that the main topic of conversation amongst the other patrons of the hotel bar is about the disappearance of an unmarried European woman in her early 20’s. She was travelling with a maid/companion, who has not gone missing and is staying in another hotel in a distraught state.
Captain Cullen decides to head to the hotel that the companion is staying in while the rest of us retire for the night. He finds out the missing woman is called Lady Mariah, and the companion is the ‘Lady’ Caroline. They arrived in Jerusalem six days ago, as Lady Mariah felt the need to travel here. The day after she arrived she was enamoured by a gentleman called Kharkarov, a businessman from the Russian Steppes. He is mysterious and there are rumours that he was ousted from Russia and that he was sent here to administer trade between Jerusalem and Russia. Within the six months he has been here he has become one of the biggest trades in the city. He doesn’t attend church. The Lady Mariah is an English woman raised in India. Kharkarov has been very attentive to her. Since she went missing he hasn’t been seen. Captain Cullen tried to contact the ‘lady’ Caroline but she failed to respond.
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
On to the Holy Land
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
Return of Cthulhu
Last weeks session was the last Rolemaster one for a while. We have now returned to a Call of Cthulhu d20 campaign that is being run by John. It is set in the late December 1929 and we are currently in Egypt at a dig South South West of Cairo.
I am playing a Catholic Priest call Father Alessandro Montalcini. He is a Missionary/Exorcist. Nige is playing a ‘batman’ called Wooster. Willy is playing an ex-RAF pilot called Captain Harry Cullen, and Neill is playing an archaeologist called Dr Ambrose Leicester.
We ended the last session in this campaign in an amphitheatre which is under Hamunaptra, the legendary City of the Dead. We had travelled there with our guide, Alish, whose family held a key to enter the temple. When we arrived we found only the top of a buried temple. The city had been surrounded by unnatural sand storms for years and had only recently stopped. In this amphitheatre stands a plinth with a closed book on it. Above us, the vaulted ceiling rises into impenetrable darkness.
We opened a book and a spirit was released. I failed to dodge it and it passed right through me. I can now read the first few pages of the book, but the rest is gibberish. It’s of no language that any of us recognises, and Dr Leicester is a specialist in language evolution and construction. After reading the first few pages I learned the spells of Banishment and Sanity Protection +3.
Under part of one of the stairways around the amphitheatre was a secret entrance to a set of stairs that led down to a chamber underneath the amphitheatre. To open the secret entrance, Harry had to pour about a half pint of his blood into a channel.
On the wall of the secret chamber is a painting of a bridge with nine circles over it. At the base of the bridge is an altar with text around it mentioning the requirements of the gatekeeper and the key to open the bridge and the gate to a new dawn.
There are also pictures of nine monsters on the walls. These are bald, with absolutely no body hair, big teeth, ridges down their backs, and they are stooped. They have big bulbous eyes, long thin scaly arms and hands with long fingers. They have no visible ears. Eight of them are unclothed and one wears a set of elegant robes.
We leave Hamunaptra and return to the dig site. As we fly over it seems very quiet. Most of the vehicles are missing. We land and start to gather up whatever we can. While walking through the site and make a successful spot roll, rolling a natural 20. I spot a person who is obviously trying not to be seen and is trying to blend into the background. It turns out to be not one, but three people – an archaeologist, a European guard, and another European. They are covered in dirt, haven’t shaved in days, and have a feral glint in their eyes. Captain Cullen passes me a scimitar shaped short sword so I can defend myself should I need to.
Wooster approaches them saying ‘you look a fright, sirs’. As he does, a stone is thrown at him by one of them. He responds by whipping his cane against his boot, pointing to his side and says, ‘Sirs, the bath is this way’. He walks toward them and the people back away. Wooster says ‘this will not do at all sirs!’ They keep backing away; one of the Europeans backs up against a rock and starts groping around behind him. Wooster backs away and is in the head by a small rock. I luckily manage to dodge a very inept throw, all though how I managed it I’ll never know. I try to convince Wooster to leave them as we don’t have time to waste on them but he just won’t listen. Wooster goes of and finds some food and laces it with a strong sedative. He returns to the men and leaves it for them to eat. They pass out and Wooster and I start carrying them to the plane.
While all this is happening, Captain Cullen and Dr Leicester go to the headquarters tent. The tent has been rummage through, but it looks like it wasn’t done by people who knew what the most important items in it were. Evidence points to the strongbox lock having been struck repeatedly by the butt of a Colt Peacemaker that is lying close by. A search of the scattered papers reveals that the most obviously important documents have been removed but the less obvious ones remain e.g. authorisation from the Egyptian consulate to excavate is missing, but a writ from the British Museum remains. The missing papers were all written in Arabic, while those that remain are in English. At least we can still get our money from the British Museum…
As Captain Cullen returns to his plane, he notices a pair of boots sticking out from underneath the tent that the leader of the dig had lived. Dr Leicester joins him and they open the tent flap. They are hit by a stench and a swarm of flies. Lying on the floor is the leader of the dig with a close range gunshot wound to his chest. On the floor behind him is a sceptre which had been found at the dig. Captain Cullen retrieves it and leaves the tent. Dr Leicester identifies it as the Pharaohs sceptre.
We all meet at Captain Cullen’s plane, bundle the three unconscious Europeans on board and return to Cairo.
I am playing a Catholic Priest call Father Alessandro Montalcini. He is a Missionary/Exorcist. Nige is playing a ‘batman’ called Wooster. Willy is playing an ex-RAF pilot called Captain Harry Cullen, and Neill is playing an archaeologist called Dr Ambrose Leicester.
We ended the last session in this campaign in an amphitheatre which is under Hamunaptra, the legendary City of the Dead. We had travelled there with our guide, Alish, whose family held a key to enter the temple. When we arrived we found only the top of a buried temple. The city had been surrounded by unnatural sand storms for years and had only recently stopped. In this amphitheatre stands a plinth with a closed book on it. Above us, the vaulted ceiling rises into impenetrable darkness.
We opened a book and a spirit was released. I failed to dodge it and it passed right through me. I can now read the first few pages of the book, but the rest is gibberish. It’s of no language that any of us recognises, and Dr Leicester is a specialist in language evolution and construction. After reading the first few pages I learned the spells of Banishment and Sanity Protection +3.
Under part of one of the stairways around the amphitheatre was a secret entrance to a set of stairs that led down to a chamber underneath the amphitheatre. To open the secret entrance, Harry had to pour about a half pint of his blood into a channel.
On the wall of the secret chamber is a painting of a bridge with nine circles over it. At the base of the bridge is an altar with text around it mentioning the requirements of the gatekeeper and the key to open the bridge and the gate to a new dawn.
There are also pictures of nine monsters on the walls. These are bald, with absolutely no body hair, big teeth, ridges down their backs, and they are stooped. They have big bulbous eyes, long thin scaly arms and hands with long fingers. They have no visible ears. Eight of them are unclothed and one wears a set of elegant robes.
We leave Hamunaptra and return to the dig site. As we fly over it seems very quiet. Most of the vehicles are missing. We land and start to gather up whatever we can. While walking through the site and make a successful spot roll, rolling a natural 20. I spot a person who is obviously trying not to be seen and is trying to blend into the background. It turns out to be not one, but three people – an archaeologist, a European guard, and another European. They are covered in dirt, haven’t shaved in days, and have a feral glint in their eyes. Captain Cullen passes me a scimitar shaped short sword so I can defend myself should I need to.
Wooster approaches them saying ‘you look a fright, sirs’. As he does, a stone is thrown at him by one of them. He responds by whipping his cane against his boot, pointing to his side and says, ‘Sirs, the bath is this way’. He walks toward them and the people back away. Wooster says ‘this will not do at all sirs!’ They keep backing away; one of the Europeans backs up against a rock and starts groping around behind him. Wooster backs away and is in the head by a small rock. I luckily manage to dodge a very inept throw, all though how I managed it I’ll never know. I try to convince Wooster to leave them as we don’t have time to waste on them but he just won’t listen. Wooster goes of and finds some food and laces it with a strong sedative. He returns to the men and leaves it for them to eat. They pass out and Wooster and I start carrying them to the plane.
While all this is happening, Captain Cullen and Dr Leicester go to the headquarters tent. The tent has been rummage through, but it looks like it wasn’t done by people who knew what the most important items in it were. Evidence points to the strongbox lock having been struck repeatedly by the butt of a Colt Peacemaker that is lying close by. A search of the scattered papers reveals that the most obviously important documents have been removed but the less obvious ones remain e.g. authorisation from the Egyptian consulate to excavate is missing, but a writ from the British Museum remains. The missing papers were all written in Arabic, while those that remain are in English. At least we can still get our money from the British Museum…
As Captain Cullen returns to his plane, he notices a pair of boots sticking out from underneath the tent that the leader of the dig had lived. Dr Leicester joins him and they open the tent flap. They are hit by a stench and a swarm of flies. Lying on the floor is the leader of the dig with a close range gunshot wound to his chest. On the floor behind him is a sceptre which had been found at the dig. Captain Cullen retrieves it and leaves the tent. Dr Leicester identifies it as the Pharaohs sceptre.
We all meet at Captain Cullen’s plane, bundle the three unconscious Europeans on board and return to Cairo.
Wednesday, August 16, 2006
'You place a chill in my heart'
Another synopsis of two weeks of gaming. I really should be more dilligent in keeping this up to date.
I start out the night of the first session with a Perception roll and make a natural 100. I thought great, hopefully this continues. Did it? Did it bugger. I spent the rest of the night with no roll above the mid fifties.
On our journey to the ruins we made camp and during the night Corvus, Orophin, and Breuonor were attacked by an oversized Yucca plant. Corvus had tendrils wrapped around his ankle and woke up in extreme pain. His ankle was freezing. He started to attack the plant but he couldn't even strike a plant tendril that was wrapped around his own ankle (see what I meant about my rolls!!). Orophin tried to damage it with a firebolt to no avail. He then tried an icebolt. Again no effect. He then cast a stun cloud over it. This had an effect. At this point the human successfully teleported Orophin and Corvus out of its clutches. Corvus was very close to death and Orophin had passed out. The stun cloud continued to damage the plant and eventually killed it.
The second fight of the evening was against Gargoyles in the ruins of a town that we had been heading for. This fight was vicious and Corvus had his arm completely shredded at the very start and he passed out with only the bone holding it together. Luckily after the fight the human healed it completely. Corvus did think that humans had to be useful for something. Orophin, the human, and the dragonette Nettie showered them with firebolts taking them all out bar one. Breuonor finished the last one with his bow.
On to last weeks game. We travelled further on our journey and reached a town that had been destroyed by an essence storm. We camped there for the night. Oromis and I went for a look at the surrounding area while camp was being set up. We found some tracks that led up to an abandoned mine. The next day we all went up to investigate. In the mine we were attacked by some shades. During this battle a shade stuck its hand into my chest and froze my heart. Again I had to rely on the damned human to save my sorry hide!
After exiting the mine and resting, we saw a shimmering portal near ariver. As we approached the portal were attacked by a group of zombies rising out of the river. I did actually manage to damage them, with tiny knicks here and there. Eventually I made a fantastic blow and caved the chest cavity of my opponent in. At long last a decent roll....
I start out the night of the first session with a Perception roll and make a natural 100. I thought great, hopefully this continues. Did it? Did it bugger. I spent the rest of the night with no roll above the mid fifties.
On our journey to the ruins we made camp and during the night Corvus, Orophin, and Breuonor were attacked by an oversized Yucca plant. Corvus had tendrils wrapped around his ankle and woke up in extreme pain. His ankle was freezing. He started to attack the plant but he couldn't even strike a plant tendril that was wrapped around his own ankle (see what I meant about my rolls!!). Orophin tried to damage it with a firebolt to no avail. He then tried an icebolt. Again no effect. He then cast a stun cloud over it. This had an effect. At this point the human successfully teleported Orophin and Corvus out of its clutches. Corvus was very close to death and Orophin had passed out. The stun cloud continued to damage the plant and eventually killed it.
The second fight of the evening was against Gargoyles in the ruins of a town that we had been heading for. This fight was vicious and Corvus had his arm completely shredded at the very start and he passed out with only the bone holding it together. Luckily after the fight the human healed it completely. Corvus did think that humans had to be useful for something. Orophin, the human, and the dragonette Nettie showered them with firebolts taking them all out bar one. Breuonor finished the last one with his bow.
On to last weeks game. We travelled further on our journey and reached a town that had been destroyed by an essence storm. We camped there for the night. Oromis and I went for a look at the surrounding area while camp was being set up. We found some tracks that led up to an abandoned mine. The next day we all went up to investigate. In the mine we were attacked by some shades. During this battle a shade stuck its hand into my chest and froze my heart. Again I had to rely on the damned human to save my sorry hide!
After exiting the mine and resting, we saw a shimmering portal near ariver. As we approached the portal were attacked by a group of zombies rising out of the river. I did actually manage to damage them, with tiny knicks here and there. Eventually I made a fantastic blow and caved the chest cavity of my opponent in. At long last a decent roll....
Thursday, August 03, 2006
Devoured by the Horde
As mentioned the other day, I played my first game of 40K in 7 years last night. I arrived to play to have my first big shock of the night. I was expecting to play against Blood Angels but I was facing Tyranids instead. Things didn't go much better from then on.
Turn 1
This was just normal maneuvering.
Turn 2
The Chaos Land Raider moved forward and came into contact with a genestealer squad. The Brood Lord blew up the engine, but the Chaos Lord and his retinue that were traveling within escaped unharmed and set about killing genestealers in retribution, losing a chosen in the process .
On the right flank a Night Lord squad led by an Aspiring Champion in Terminator armour were assaulted by hormagaunts losing two members. The Aspiring Champion took out three in return.
In the centre of the field the Chaos Predator opened up on a squad of winged warriors and turned two into a bloody pulp.
The Hive Tyrant opened up with his devourers and killed three death guard which where huddled in the ruins of a building to the left of the Predator.
Five Plague Bearers decide to make an appearance close to the Chaos Lord.
All in all, not a very good round with the loss of the Chaos forces hard hitting Land Raider.
Turn 3
This is where it all went wrong....
The Hive Tyrant turns his attention from the Death Guard to the newly appeared Plaguebearers and they disappear in their entirety under a withering hail of bioweaponry.
A Carnifex appears in front of the Chaos Predator and blows off a track and its turret mounted Lascannons. It then moves in for the assault and tears the engine out. The rest of the predator turns into a raging inferno.
The remaining winged warriors join in the assault on the Night Lords. They valiantly withstand the combined assault and take out an hormagaunt and a winged warrior. They later fall leaving on the Aspiring Champion who takes out he remaining winged warrior.
Over on the left flank, the Brood Lord kills the Chaos Lord. His remaining retinue of chosen withstand an assault of ten hormagaunts, killing six. The victorious Brood Lord, scythes his way through the remaining Chosen destroying them utterly.
The remaining Night Lords are consumed by the Hive Tyrant and his retinue.
Turn 4
At this point there is only the Night Lord Aspiring Champion left.
He valiantly withstands the assault of the hormagaunt horde and presses his attack on the Carnifex. His Lightning Claw bounces off of the Carnifexes body. The carnifex picks him up, rips him in half, throws his legs away and then proceeds to suck his innards out. How to turn an Aspiring Champion into an oversized crab claw....
As you can see this was an utter defeat for the powers of Chaos. The Chaos gods were definitely not smiling on their followers that day. The Aspiring Champion definitely earned his place as man of the match though.
Turn 1
This was just normal maneuvering.
Turn 2
The Chaos Land Raider moved forward and came into contact with a genestealer squad. The Brood Lord blew up the engine, but the Chaos Lord and his retinue that were traveling within escaped unharmed and set about killing genestealers in retribution, losing a chosen in the process .
On the right flank a Night Lord squad led by an Aspiring Champion in Terminator armour were assaulted by hormagaunts losing two members. The Aspiring Champion took out three in return.
In the centre of the field the Chaos Predator opened up on a squad of winged warriors and turned two into a bloody pulp.
The Hive Tyrant opened up with his devourers and killed three death guard which where huddled in the ruins of a building to the left of the Predator.
Five Plague Bearers decide to make an appearance close to the Chaos Lord.
All in all, not a very good round with the loss of the Chaos forces hard hitting Land Raider.
Turn 3
This is where it all went wrong....
The Hive Tyrant turns his attention from the Death Guard to the newly appeared Plaguebearers and they disappear in their entirety under a withering hail of bioweaponry.
A Carnifex appears in front of the Chaos Predator and blows off a track and its turret mounted Lascannons. It then moves in for the assault and tears the engine out. The rest of the predator turns into a raging inferno.
The remaining winged warriors join in the assault on the Night Lords. They valiantly withstand the combined assault and take out an hormagaunt and a winged warrior. They later fall leaving on the Aspiring Champion who takes out he remaining winged warrior.
Over on the left flank, the Brood Lord kills the Chaos Lord. His remaining retinue of chosen withstand an assault of ten hormagaunts, killing six. The victorious Brood Lord, scythes his way through the remaining Chosen destroying them utterly.
The remaining Night Lords are consumed by the Hive Tyrant and his retinue.
Turn 4
At this point there is only the Night Lord Aspiring Champion left.
He valiantly withstands the assault of the hormagaunt horde and presses his attack on the Carnifex. His Lightning Claw bounces off of the Carnifexes body. The carnifex picks him up, rips him in half, throws his legs away and then proceeds to suck his innards out. How to turn an Aspiring Champion into an oversized crab claw....
As you can see this was an utter defeat for the powers of Chaos. The Chaos gods were definitely not smiling on their followers that day. The Aspiring Champion definitely earned his place as man of the match though.
Monday, July 31, 2006
Preparing for War
I shall start out by noting that this is not related to the current Rolemaster game.
I have recently been building a new Tau army for Warhammer 40K and finishing off my Chaos Space Marines. The last time I played 40K was way back in 1999 and I only played one game using the 3rd edition rules. I recently bought the 4th edition of the rules as I have been meaning to get back into the game. As luck would have it, 3 weeks after I made this decision my local Games Workshop closed! Oh well.
Anyway, my original gaming partner from years ago moved back to Dumfries not long after I did and we had been meaning to get together for a game for months, but I had been dragging my heels. I saw the booklet for the Medusa V campaign that is being run this summer, and I decided I better get my act together as its looks like it could be good fun.
I have managed to put together 1200 points worth of Chaos Space Marines. I added some bits from the Chaos Vehicle sprue to a Predator Annihalator I have had for about 7 years and gave it a repaint. Those vehicle sprues are great for making vehicles look 'Chaosy'. I have eventually finished building and painting my Chaos Land Raider, which will look really good on the battlefield. These are all painted using the Black Legion colours. Eventually I want the ability to field either a Black Legion, Death Guard, or a Emperors Children force. I know it will cost a lot, but I will get there sometime.
My first game is arranged for Wednesday evening, and I hope that I don't get defeated too soundly. May Strike Force Acharon please the Chaos Powers and reign supreme over the battleground (and kill plenty of those deluded Blood Angels, especially those worthless Death Company).
I have recently been building a new Tau army for Warhammer 40K and finishing off my Chaos Space Marines. The last time I played 40K was way back in 1999 and I only played one game using the 3rd edition rules. I recently bought the 4th edition of the rules as I have been meaning to get back into the game. As luck would have it, 3 weeks after I made this decision my local Games Workshop closed! Oh well.
Anyway, my original gaming partner from years ago moved back to Dumfries not long after I did and we had been meaning to get together for a game for months, but I had been dragging my heels. I saw the booklet for the Medusa V campaign that is being run this summer, and I decided I better get my act together as its looks like it could be good fun.
I have managed to put together 1200 points worth of Chaos Space Marines. I added some bits from the Chaos Vehicle sprue to a Predator Annihalator I have had for about 7 years and gave it a repaint. Those vehicle sprues are great for making vehicles look 'Chaosy'. I have eventually finished building and painting my Chaos Land Raider, which will look really good on the battlefield. These are all painted using the Black Legion colours. Eventually I want the ability to field either a Black Legion, Death Guard, or a Emperors Children force. I know it will cost a lot, but I will get there sometime.
My first game is arranged for Wednesday evening, and I hope that I don't get defeated too soundly. May Strike Force Acharon please the Chaos Powers and reign supreme over the battleground (and kill plenty of those deluded Blood Angels, especially those worthless Death Company).
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
Will I ever roll above 38?
Again it’s been a while since I posted anything. Getting to be a bit of a habit…
After being attacked by the bandit we continued on our journey. We came across two people fighting in the road. As we approached them they turned round and attacked us. There were at least two other bandits and a wizard in the woods. The wizard threw a ball of cold which struck Orophin and took him down to ¼ hit points. Most of the battle is a haze, but Corvus charged on horseback towards the two bandits in the woods. I rolled an amazing double-open ended roll and was able to leap of the back of my horse with both my weapons drawn and engage them in combat. That was won of the few decent rolls I made that night. After a couple of rounds of not being able to hit them (due to the fact that I couldn’t roll above 40), I lucked out and made an open-ended roll on one of my attacks (it was a natural 100) and sliced the head off of one of the bandits.
What Corvus (and I) can remember about the rest of the battle is that Nettie, Orophin’s Dragonette, took care of the Wizard that had caused such harm to his owner.
I missed the next week, which was a shame as there was a massive fight with lots of Rock wolves. Bang goes 3500+ experience points for Corvus. I am led to believe it was the most exciting session to date…at least that’s what they tell me.
The next session was basically an uneventful travel to the next town. The only interesting thing that happened was that I botched one of my perception roles and I fell asleep on my watch. That pesky human woke me up complaining. Corvus’ defence was that I had woken him up and that he must have fell back to sleep on his watch. Nobody really believed me though. Would you believe it? The rest of the party of Elves believed the newbie human scum over their long term elf colleague…
Last nights session was a lot more exciting. While making camp in a mountain pass we were attacked by two giant scorpions. I made two fantastic rolls for my hide and stalk and sneaked right around the back of them. I was so good that nobody else noticed and I nearly got blasted by a shock bolt from the human. As I was surprising them from the rear my first attack was at +40 to hit and then every subsequent attack was at +20. I failed to hit the first four times and in the end I only struck one of the giant scorpions three times for a total of 16 damage. Could I roll above 38? Could I hell! While all this was going on the human attempted on at least two separate occasion to cast a spell and botched it, stunning himself. At least I wasn’t the only one with bad rolls.
A few nights later Corvus was on watch and he noticed a migration of an army ant colony so we were able to avoid it.
Just before reaching the next time we come across a wagon with two adult males torn apart and a woman and two children who were also dead, but bore the marks of humanoid bites. At least two humanoids had been feeding off of them. We put the remains into the wagon, which the beastmaster fixed and then took everything along to the next town and handed it over to the authorities.
During all this we have found out that Robert seems to take guides along various points of the route. He then seems to appear later on without anybody, and he seems to be aging. We have our suspicions that he is draining their life force to survive, and then raises them from the dead. It’s these undead that we think were eating the bodies.
p.s. It should be noted that Neill has managed to break his trend of rolling fumbles. Twice in last nights session he rolled a natural 100. Grrrrrrrrrr.
Wednesday, June 28, 2006
Tongue Swallowing
It's been a couple of weeks since my last post so here's a quick catch up.
After the disposal of the spiders we decided to regroup and heal. We return and continue further into the cave complex. After a short while, and killing a few more undead spiders, we arrive at a much larger cavern covered with the same black goo as the spider cavern. We advance carefully into this cavern, having learned from our earlier mistakes.
We are half-way across when the goo 'bubbles' up around Bruenor, and begins to envelop him from the feet up. He reaches up and tries to pull himself up towards the roof (which is pretty low at this point in the cave). As this is going on Corvus and the Conjurer notice the outline of a person in the far wall of the cavern and continue on to take care of whatever it is.
As Bruenor is trying to pull himself away from the grasp of the goo, Orophin strikes the goo with his staff and manages to tear some of it. The damage is transferred through to the Beastmaster. Such is the price of help from your friends. Oromis, the ranger, sees what happens and starts hacking at the goo from the other side. Andy rolls for this strike and fumbles it. The ranger over extends himself on the attack and stumbles. In his misfortune he swallows his tongue and starts choking. All I can say in the corner is 'Cool, another fumble...'.
While the ranger is choking, Corvus and the Conjurer reach the figure and see that it is a mishaped humanoid. We pile straight in and attack. Corvus strikes it with his katana while Conjurer unleashes shock bolts. By the time we're finished there is not much left. The black goo disappears and Bruenor is freed. That put paid to the undead threat.
We get ourselves sorted and head back to the village. On arriving there we find that Robert, the son of one of the farm owners (and who was very interested in our group) has stolen a horse and did a disappearing act. Very suspicious if you ask me!
Fast forward to the next gaming session. Our group go to the guild hall. The Conjurer is presented with a note summoning him back to the main guild hall, and a replacement has been sent. The replacement turns out to be a short-arsed Common Man. There goes our elf-only members group. Well, at least it aint a dwarf. After the various introductions and the carrying out of mundane tasks such as restocking supplies we head out of the village on the road that we arrived on.
We arrive at the point on the road where we met the bandits on the way to the village when a cold blast hits us. Turns out that the bandit that got away the first time is attacking us. The Conjurer's replacement unleashes a fireball at him and turns him to a smoldering pile of ash. What follows is about 20 minutes worth of supposition on where the bandit got the arrow from and how Robert was involved. As you may have guessed it wasn't exactly our most productive session.
After the disposal of the spiders we decided to regroup and heal. We return and continue further into the cave complex. After a short while, and killing a few more undead spiders, we arrive at a much larger cavern covered with the same black goo as the spider cavern. We advance carefully into this cavern, having learned from our earlier mistakes.
We are half-way across when the goo 'bubbles' up around Bruenor, and begins to envelop him from the feet up. He reaches up and tries to pull himself up towards the roof (which is pretty low at this point in the cave). As this is going on Corvus and the Conjurer notice the outline of a person in the far wall of the cavern and continue on to take care of whatever it is.
As Bruenor is trying to pull himself away from the grasp of the goo, Orophin strikes the goo with his staff and manages to tear some of it. The damage is transferred through to the Beastmaster. Such is the price of help from your friends. Oromis, the ranger, sees what happens and starts hacking at the goo from the other side. Andy rolls for this strike and fumbles it. The ranger over extends himself on the attack and stumbles. In his misfortune he swallows his tongue and starts choking. All I can say in the corner is 'Cool, another fumble...'.
While the ranger is choking, Corvus and the Conjurer reach the figure and see that it is a mishaped humanoid. We pile straight in and attack. Corvus strikes it with his katana while Conjurer unleashes shock bolts. By the time we're finished there is not much left. The black goo disappears and Bruenor is freed. That put paid to the undead threat.
We get ourselves sorted and head back to the village. On arriving there we find that Robert, the son of one of the farm owners (and who was very interested in our group) has stolen a horse and did a disappearing act. Very suspicious if you ask me!
Fast forward to the next gaming session. Our group go to the guild hall. The Conjurer is presented with a note summoning him back to the main guild hall, and a replacement has been sent. The replacement turns out to be a short-arsed Common Man. There goes our elf-only members group. Well, at least it aint a dwarf. After the various introductions and the carrying out of mundane tasks such as restocking supplies we head out of the village on the road that we arrived on.
We arrive at the point on the road where we met the bandits on the way to the village when a cold blast hits us. Turns out that the bandit that got away the first time is attacking us. The Conjurer's replacement unleashes a fireball at him and turns him to a smoldering pile of ash. What follows is about 20 minutes worth of supposition on where the bandit got the arrow from and how Robert was involved. As you may have guessed it wasn't exactly our most productive session.
Saturday, June 10, 2006
Will those spiders ever die?
At last, we have actually worked out some of what is happening. With prompting from our GM we remember that the primary task of every guild member is to fight undead wherever we find it, regardless of what mission we are on. With this information fresh in our minds we decide to take a foray into the cave under the waterfall to see what is really in there.
Corvus initially takes a quick look into the cave and gets overwhelmed by the stench of rotting flesh and summarily empties the contents of his stomach all over the place. I guess we have found where all the chickens went to! The conjurer makes some masks from scarfs dipped into some sort of smelly liquid to protect us from the worse of the stench and so off we go.
Corvus takes the lead (as he should) to sneak ahead and scope out what the party is about to blunder into. As we descend into the cave Corvus (via the occurance of two open-ended perception rolls) notices that what seems to be the floor of the cave is actually moving as though it was a rug with something under it. What seems to be spider legs seem to be poking through the surface. We arrange ourselves into our combat positions as seven undead spiders charge us.
The ranger and the beastmaster loose their arrows and two spiders go down. Corvus and the bear dispatch another two. The final three are then quickly dealt with. While we are feeling pretty good with ourselves, Corvus decides to move further into the cavern. As he moves past some of the spider corpses the ground suddenly explodes and he gets hit in the chest by one of the supposedly destroyed spiders. He hits the floor stunned and in a very bad way. I'm sitting there thinking 'oh crap, there goes my character' when Willy suddenly says that his conjurer will attempt to teleport him out of there. My first thought is that it's definitely bye bye to this character as this spell is seriously difficult for his fledgling spellcaster. To my shock and delight he succeeds and Corvus finds himself at the feet of the conjurer who then very kindly heals him.
While this is going on the rest of the spiders come back to unlife and proceed to attack the rest of the party. It soon becomes apparent that normal weapons are no good as these bloody undead arachnids won't stay dead. It's at this point that it comes to our attention that Orophin is actually successful in destroying them. Could we believe it? Up until now Orophin had been about as much use as a wet paper bag, and now he's the most effective member of the party! It turns out he has a magic staff. Neill manages to not fumble (another big surprise) and we eventually destroy them all.
That's the last time I beleive that a squidged spider is trully dead....
Corvus initially takes a quick look into the cave and gets overwhelmed by the stench of rotting flesh and summarily empties the contents of his stomach all over the place. I guess we have found where all the chickens went to! The conjurer makes some masks from scarfs dipped into some sort of smelly liquid to protect us from the worse of the stench and so off we go.
Corvus takes the lead (as he should) to sneak ahead and scope out what the party is about to blunder into. As we descend into the cave Corvus (via the occurance of two open-ended perception rolls) notices that what seems to be the floor of the cave is actually moving as though it was a rug with something under it. What seems to be spider legs seem to be poking through the surface. We arrange ourselves into our combat positions as seven undead spiders charge us.
The ranger and the beastmaster loose their arrows and two spiders go down. Corvus and the bear dispatch another two. The final three are then quickly dealt with. While we are feeling pretty good with ourselves, Corvus decides to move further into the cavern. As he moves past some of the spider corpses the ground suddenly explodes and he gets hit in the chest by one of the supposedly destroyed spiders. He hits the floor stunned and in a very bad way. I'm sitting there thinking 'oh crap, there goes my character' when Willy suddenly says that his conjurer will attempt to teleport him out of there. My first thought is that it's definitely bye bye to this character as this spell is seriously difficult for his fledgling spellcaster. To my shock and delight he succeeds and Corvus finds himself at the feet of the conjurer who then very kindly heals him.
While this is going on the rest of the spiders come back to unlife and proceed to attack the rest of the party. It soon becomes apparent that normal weapons are no good as these bloody undead arachnids won't stay dead. It's at this point that it comes to our attention that Orophin is actually successful in destroying them. Could we believe it? Up until now Orophin had been about as much use as a wet paper bag, and now he's the most effective member of the party! It turns out he has a magic staff. Neill manages to not fumble (another big surprise) and we eventually destroy them all.
That's the last time I beleive that a squidged spider is trully dead....
Wednesday, May 31, 2006
Does anyone take any care?
I missed the previous weeks game and by all accounts Neill rolled a couple of fumbles but no-one is willing to tell me what Orophin did!
So on to this weeks game. There are lots of bits of spiders lying all around us as we had just annihilated the group of spiders that the spider queen in the mine had sent us to dispose of. Orophin and Corvus agree to go back to the spider queen to inform her of our success and then to get the information that we require. The beastmaster and the conjurer return to the village. It turns out that an undead creature has been seen near the waterfall at the bottom exit of the mine.
On returning to the village Orophin and Corvus are introduced to a ranger (another elf) who has been sent by the guild to aid us in our mission. We inform the rest of the party about the presence of the undead creature(s) at the waterfall and so we decide to trek off and see what's up there.
As we approach the waterfall, the ranger says he's going to go slightly ahead to check for tracks. He finds some, and while he's trying to determine what's made them, the beastmaster, his bear, and the conjurer just barge right through pushing the ranger out of the way and obliterating the tracks! I should point out that a similar thing happened the last game I was at. We were in the mine and Corvus said that he would scout out ahead using his stealth abilities to see what was around the corner and then report back. The beastmaster totally ignores this, and him and his bear just barge ahead and walk straight into trouble. Seems like another pattern is emerging...
Anyway, back to Chickentopia. On learning that undead are involved, Corvus got the idea that maybe that is what Chickentopia was. It was the home for undead chickens and that the missing chickens have been turned into undead and went there to continue their unlife in undead fowl bliss. On hearing this, the rest of his party (led by the conjurer) start talking about the possibility of having to commit euthanasia for their own good rather than Corvuses.
We spend the next few days fruitlessly watching the chickens trying to see what is happening to them. As you may guess we are totally clueless about what is going on. Not much new there then.
So on to this weeks game. There are lots of bits of spiders lying all around us as we had just annihilated the group of spiders that the spider queen in the mine had sent us to dispose of. Orophin and Corvus agree to go back to the spider queen to inform her of our success and then to get the information that we require. The beastmaster and the conjurer return to the village. It turns out that an undead creature has been seen near the waterfall at the bottom exit of the mine.
On returning to the village Orophin and Corvus are introduced to a ranger (another elf) who has been sent by the guild to aid us in our mission. We inform the rest of the party about the presence of the undead creature(s) at the waterfall and so we decide to trek off and see what's up there.
As we approach the waterfall, the ranger says he's going to go slightly ahead to check for tracks. He finds some, and while he's trying to determine what's made them, the beastmaster, his bear, and the conjurer just barge right through pushing the ranger out of the way and obliterating the tracks! I should point out that a similar thing happened the last game I was at. We were in the mine and Corvus said that he would scout out ahead using his stealth abilities to see what was around the corner and then report back. The beastmaster totally ignores this, and him and his bear just barge ahead and walk straight into trouble. Seems like another pattern is emerging...
Anyway, back to Chickentopia. On learning that undead are involved, Corvus got the idea that maybe that is what Chickentopia was. It was the home for undead chickens and that the missing chickens have been turned into undead and went there to continue their unlife in undead fowl bliss. On hearing this, the rest of his party (led by the conjurer) start talking about the possibility of having to commit euthanasia for their own good rather than Corvuses.
We spend the next few days fruitlessly watching the chickens trying to see what is happening to them. As you may guess we are totally clueless about what is going on. Not much new there then.
Friday, May 19, 2006
Corvus Ravensclaw
Just a quick post. I have just finished my portrait of Corvus so I thought I would post it here. I have called it 'Guardian of Chickentopia'. If you want to look at any of my other work you can see it at http://www.infinitedreamers.co.uk/cpg132/
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
Fun & Games with Rolemaster
We’ve been playing a new Rolemaster (RM2) campaign for about 4 weeks now so this post will act as a synopsis of the mayhem to date. It should be noted that this is our first time playing RM2 as this group.
We all diligently spent anywhere between 3 and 5 hours to lovingly craft our new characters. My character is a Nightblade, which is effectively a legalised murderer, who is a little weird to say the least. His trusty companions are a Beastmaster, a Magician, and a Conjurer. We are all elves, and I am a raving Dwarf (stunty) hater.
We are all members of a guild and our first mission is to investigate a spate of chicken rustling (yes, CHICKEN rustling!!). On our journey to our destination we encounter a spot of highway robbery and decide to intervene and protect the poor merchant who is being robbed. Our trusty Mage (Orophin) stands aside and summons the forces of magic to cast a water bolt at an archer who was covering the other robbers. Nige (our GM) tells Neill (the Mage) to roll his dice to see if he is successful. On his first roll with his new character in our first ever RM2 game he fumbles it! Nige says you want to roll low, and he rolls high. The Mage starts to ooze blood from his eyes, nose, ears, and mouth, and subsequently collapses to a heap on the ground. What a wonderful start to his illustrious career. And this is only the beginning of a developing pattern for the unfortunate soul. After the rest of the players pick themselves up from the ground in fits of hysterics they get their characters to dispatch the nefarious highwaymen.
Fast forward to our second session. We are at the village and investigating the cause of the loss of hundreds of chickens. Willy comes up with loads of theories about what may have happened to them using the fact that they will generate a lot of chicken crap if they are still alive or a lot of bones or carcasses if they are being eaten to rule out various scenarios. Corvus (my Nightblade) comes up with the idea that they have all gone to Chickentopia led by a chicken called Moses who has freed them from slavery and taken them to the promised land. He believes that Chickentopia resides in the lower levels of the local abandoned mine. The rest of his party looks like he has gone mad but decides to humour him and investigate the mine.
Fast forward to last nights game. We are investigating the mine and wander amongst some giant spiders that ignore us. We find a small natural passage that leads down. Corvus takes the lead and nimbly slithers down to the cavern below. He has just stepped to the side of the exit to look around when he hears this cry, followed by the noise of something sliding uncontrollably down the passage. Orophin flies out of the bottom of the passage and lands face first into the 4 inch deep pool of water that is covering the end of the cavern. He is not moving! Corvus quickly grabs him from behind, yanks him up and drags him to dry ground. Orpohin is covered in bruises and is out cold. Neill has managed to fumble it again. It’s the second time that night. The first time was on a perception roll, where he banged himself on the head with his torch and singed his eyebrows. I told you it was a developing pattern.
In the end it turns out that the chickens have not set up Chickentopia in the mine. They are nowhere to be found. Corvus is distraught. He hatches the plan to get Bruenor (the Beastmaster) to talk to the chickens that are still at the village and persuade them to run away and set up Chickentopia.
We all diligently spent anywhere between 3 and 5 hours to lovingly craft our new characters. My character is a Nightblade, which is effectively a legalised murderer, who is a little weird to say the least. His trusty companions are a Beastmaster, a Magician, and a Conjurer. We are all elves, and I am a raving Dwarf (stunty) hater.
We are all members of a guild and our first mission is to investigate a spate of chicken rustling (yes, CHICKEN rustling!!). On our journey to our destination we encounter a spot of highway robbery and decide to intervene and protect the poor merchant who is being robbed. Our trusty Mage (Orophin) stands aside and summons the forces of magic to cast a water bolt at an archer who was covering the other robbers. Nige (our GM) tells Neill (the Mage) to roll his dice to see if he is successful. On his first roll with his new character in our first ever RM2 game he fumbles it! Nige says you want to roll low, and he rolls high. The Mage starts to ooze blood from his eyes, nose, ears, and mouth, and subsequently collapses to a heap on the ground. What a wonderful start to his illustrious career. And this is only the beginning of a developing pattern for the unfortunate soul. After the rest of the players pick themselves up from the ground in fits of hysterics they get their characters to dispatch the nefarious highwaymen.
Fast forward to our second session. We are at the village and investigating the cause of the loss of hundreds of chickens. Willy comes up with loads of theories about what may have happened to them using the fact that they will generate a lot of chicken crap if they are still alive or a lot of bones or carcasses if they are being eaten to rule out various scenarios. Corvus (my Nightblade) comes up with the idea that they have all gone to Chickentopia led by a chicken called Moses who has freed them from slavery and taken them to the promised land. He believes that Chickentopia resides in the lower levels of the local abandoned mine. The rest of his party looks like he has gone mad but decides to humour him and investigate the mine.
Fast forward to last nights game. We are investigating the mine and wander amongst some giant spiders that ignore us. We find a small natural passage that leads down. Corvus takes the lead and nimbly slithers down to the cavern below. He has just stepped to the side of the exit to look around when he hears this cry, followed by the noise of something sliding uncontrollably down the passage. Orophin flies out of the bottom of the passage and lands face first into the 4 inch deep pool of water that is covering the end of the cavern. He is not moving! Corvus quickly grabs him from behind, yanks him up and drags him to dry ground. Orpohin is covered in bruises and is out cold. Neill has managed to fumble it again. It’s the second time that night. The first time was on a perception roll, where he banged himself on the head with his torch and singed his eyebrows. I told you it was a developing pattern.
In the end it turns out that the chickens have not set up Chickentopia in the mine. They are nowhere to be found. Corvus is distraught. He hatches the plan to get Bruenor (the Beastmaster) to talk to the chickens that are still at the village and persuade them to run away and set up Chickentopia.
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